Yes it's hot, but we would do it all again

Who in their right mind goes to Dubai in July? I heard that a lot leading up to our trip. I was even saying it myself as we sat on the plane at Birmingham before take-off. I soon forgot about it as we sat in our row of two seats on the Emirates flight watching movies and chilling out.

The flight was great and the staff attentive, and we were in Dubai in no time or so it seemed.

We were met at the aircraft door by a man with a wheelchair for Connor, I had been told Dubai airport was vast, so booked this with the airline a few day prior. This is really something anyone who can’t walk more than half a mile should consider and I would say it’s my top tip for anyone travelling to or transiting through Dubai airport. If in doubt book assistance.

Once we had been quickly whisked through immigration, collected our cases and found our private transfer driver it was time for the journey to our first of two hotels. We sat in our air conditioned people carrier with our complimentary bottle of ice cold water and watched the city skyline disappear as we travelled the 40 minutes to the area known as Jebel Ali.

Our hotel for the next 5 nights was the 5 star JA Palm Tree Court, we arrived in the dark, so couldn't see the beautiful grounds, but the reception area was welcoming and the staff greeted us with a cold drink and told us not to worry about our bags everything would be taken care of. We were then taken to see our room by golf buggy before being driven back for dinner. We ate that night in the buffet restaurant. Connor was very happy to find they had chicken strips, so he knew he was going to like the place a lot.

Palm Tree Court is not your typical Dubai hotel. Sitting by the pool or on the beach you could easily be in Mauritius. It’s not high rise and struggling for space, the hotel is spacious and sprawling it’s a resort hotel and it’s all inclusive. Yes, that’s right, in a country where alcohol is expensive you can drink as much as you like without breaking the bank.

You won’t be disappointed with the food here either. The restaurants are fabulous. The food is worthy of the 5 star rating the hotel has. The Italian was my favourite and the thing is you aren’t restricted to the amount of times you eat in any of the restaurants, you just have to make sure you have a reservation. Taking Connor the connoisseur of chicken nuggets with me didn’t stop me eating in any of the speciality restaurants either. Osama the chef we met on the first night made sure that whichever restaurant I chose to eat in Connor's favourite along with his homemade BBQ sauce were waiting for him if he didn’t like anything on the menu. The attentiveness of the waiters and staff was second to none.

Peacocks - when I was looking at reviews of this hotel online I couldn't get over the amount of pictures people had taken of the resident peacocks. On a tour of the hotel arranged by the guest services I found out why, it seems they used to have a few and now there are over a hundred. They are beautiful, but on the first morning one of them did wake me up at 5am. I didn’t know what the noise was so went out onto the balcony and saw this peacock on the roof of the next building shouting like a cockerel. You do hear them, but it’s a sound you get used to and we missed it when we moved to the city.

For anyone that knows me well or from just reading my blogs, you will realise that I am rubbish at sitting still, but I have to say after 5 nights here I have learnt that the world doesn’t end if you chill out in the pool sipping the odd pina colada. The weather obviously played its part as you could easily melt in the 47 degree heat if you didn’t spend time in the pool, but as long as you are wearing your high factor cream there is no reason not to be here in July.